Maybe it is worth building border walls simply to
create jobs for unemployed Americans. Even if the walls fail to keep
out
the "evil ones", at least we can knock-off some folks waiting
on the unemployment lines around the nation.

It is estimated that the U.S. has an illegal immigrant
population near 20 million.A large portion of that
number is from Mexico.Most illegal Mexican immigrants
come
to find a better life, jobs and human rights. A small amount is
said
to perpetrate illegal activities. Consequently, we may consider
that there would be no need for illegal Mexican immigrants to come to
the U.S.
if their needs were fulfilled in Mexico.

As the Mexican government tries to get us to take care
of the needs of those illegals while they are here, the U.S. could try
to encourage the Mexican Government to provide its citizens with
a better way of life before they try to enter the U.S., e.g., create
better
paying jobs and encourage human rights.

It seems our own government does so
haphazardly in places overseas, e.g., Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, etc., but
never
that much in Mexico.In fact, during the past decade our
own
rights as citizens of the U.S. have been manipulated and jeopardized by
profiteers who seem to hold our lawmakers in their
pockets.

It also seems that we are focused more on our southern
borders with Mexico rather than on our northern borders with Canada.
Perhaps it doesn't seem likely that any Canadians would consider leaving
their
nation to come into the U.S. where they would have to stand on endless
unemployment lines and pay for their own health care. Canadians as a
whole
seem to be taken care of better by their government than ours. So, why
leave Canada? No need to build fences there. In fact, Canadians
don't want Americans to come into Canada to live and work there. So,
the
Canadian government may soon opt to build its own border wall to keep us
out.

In reality and historically, border walls do not work,
at least for the long term.For many years the Berlin Wall
created a division of East and West Germany; finally it was torn
down.Not even The Great Wall of China (parts of which are
25
feet high) could keep out invaders indefinitely and within many parts of
the
Great Wall are the buried remains --- the hearts and souls --- of
millions of
workers who died building it.However, we are told that
the
Great Wall failed, especially in 1644, when the gates at Shanhaiguan
were opened
by Wu Sangui, a Ming border general who disliked the activities of
rulers of the
Shun Dynasty. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and defeated the
newly
founded Shun Dynasty and remaining Ming resistance to establish the Qing
Dynasty. It also took millions of guards to monitor the
Great
Wall.So, these days some in the U.S. may say the only
positive aspect of building border walls is to create new jobs, buteven more jobs may not be a good enough reason to build border
walls.

Do we have the tax dollars needed to build the walls
and will Americans apply for and be given those jobs, or should we have
lower
wage earners from Mexico build the walls and leave themselves on the
Mexican
side when they are finished?

In truth, border walls send out a terrible
message.It is received by humans and animals, who are
forced
to accept them as a new part of life, which then creates many other
difficult
issues.Walls create unnatural prisons that force
different
patterns of living and create additional "walls" of hate and fear.The world does not need more "walls" along various borders.Along the border, walls between the U.S. and Mexico, depriving
access to
the Rio Grande River for humans (farmers, ranchers, residents) and
animals is
another difficult issue.

However, even if the American people managed to
persuade Washington officials to approach the Mexican government to
provide its
citizens with jobs, human rights and a better standard of living, will
that
government move to do so?It's
doubtful.

And what if we persuade our Congress to remove all
border walls along our two nations?Would that benefit
both
nations significantly?That's doubtful
too.

So, we have 20 million immigrants who have arrived
in the U.S. illegally.They have all committed a crime:
they
are here illegally.To do nothing about thisillegal population is to permit the crime.What do
we
do about this illegal population?Permit them to
remain?Encourage more illegal movement?Why then do we have immigration laws and regulations?With millions of unemployed U.S. citizens, do we continue to
permit
illegals to accept jobs first? Or do we mandate that only Americans be
employed first? And then how do we enforce these actions? These are
tough questions to answer.

While most of the Mexicans who come into the U.S.
illegally arrive at great risk seeking jobs, better living conditions
and better
lives for themselves and their families, there also is a small
percentage of
that population who arrives with criminal records and adds to the
criminal
population, who then work in the shadows of freedom as parasites within
our
society.While certainly not the majority nor even a large
number who come, they do become part of an unaccountable negative
infringement
on our daily lives.

However, contrary to popular belief, many illegal
immigrants working here are paying U.S. taxes. How many
pay
and how much they are paying is not clear.In reality, the
illegal population in this nation pays a large chunk of social security
taxes.In fact, for this and other reasons our government
may
secretly want more illegals.If so, why then build and
maintain those border walls?

In addition, it is obvious that as long as businesses
hire illegals for a fraction of what is paid to U.S. citizens for the
same job,
why not hire illegals? After all, this is a capitalistic society out to
make large profits. In addition, another perk for businesses is that
illegals do not get health care and other benefits. Since they are
illegally in this nation, there are no laws to protect
them.

Bottom-line: How do we handle the 20 million illegals
in this nation? Why build border walls and how do we get the Mexican
government to provide its citizens with a better life so that the
ever-increasing population does not continue to enter the U.S.
illegally?
Should we aggressively enforce our current immigration laws? If so, how
do
we do it?

The direction is not clear.We can
communicate to our lawmakers that they should contact the Mexican
government to
initiate positive change, pushing for human rights; however, the history
of that
nation highlights that the Mexican government owns production and reaps
vast
fortunes at a large cost to its people.How do we force
change that certainly will impede the future fortunes of the Mexican
government
and wealthy private citizens, change that will cut its enormous
profiteering?

Furthermore, how do we encourage our government to
enforce our current immigration laws?We can't even get
our
own government to enforce punishment (already provided for in our
immigration
laws) on American companies who hire illegal immigrants and who force
that
population to work in hostile conditions, with no benefits and at
cheaper wages
then are offered to U.S. citizens?Now that there are 20
million illegal immigrants living and working in the U.S. is it
practical, and
would we be able to enforce our immigration laws, to extradite that huge
number?And at what price (dollars, self sense of worth
and
world image) to do so?

One of the largest activities of the Mexican illegals
is to send a large part of their earnings to their families still in
Mexico. This becomes one of the largest exports we provide to Mexico
---
our U.S. dollars.

We can also question our success in pushing for
democracy and human rights in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other areas of
the world
(Africa, Far East).After we leave that region will the
governments we have helped support provide their respective populations
with
long-needed human rights and jobs with reasonable wages?It
is doubtful.

Until we consider appropriately how to engage the
Mexican government and other governments around the globe to change
historical
and abusive political, social and economic ways, the population of those
nations
will continue to be undermined and treated poorly by their own
governments.They will continue to do anything and risk
everything to leave their land of poverty and enslavement to search out
better
lives, under the dark of night, to live and work illegally here in the
U.S.It is a vicious cycle that must be stopped, but how
to
do so intelligently and successfully remains a
question.

So, what is the real purpose for building border
walls?Do border walls serve a legitimate, positive
purpose?Or do they send out a signal of hate and
desperation?

Do border walls really work?No.They work only for the companies and people
that
build them, via earning money to do the job.Otherwise, "Walls are for climbing over,
digging
under, or going through."

While we are on the topic of building walls, perhaps we
should build a wall around our nation's Capitol to protect U.S. citizens
from
their leaders.

Peter Stern, a former director of information
services,
university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled
Vietnam
veteran who lives in Driftwood., TX.